McGuire, Love take on tough issues at Sonoma County Food Forum

Sustainable farming practices, food miles and the impact of our purchasing decisions on our economy and health were top items on the table at the first-ever  Sonoma County Food Forum Thursday at the Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa. 

“There are ways to change the system so farmers can make more money and which can give more families access to food,” said Healdsburg resident Melita Love, founder of, a local charity that delivers surplus crops to low income residents. “I've heard a lot of good ideas about aggregating food, and I think a more integrated system would be nice.”

The forum, which ran from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and which was attended by about 300 people, also featured a locally harvested lunch. Among the attendees were four county supervisors – Shirlee Zane, , Efren Carrillo and David Rabbitt – who were there to collect ideas for potential policy proposals. Almost every other attendee was a professional affiliated with the local food market.

McGuire said both municipal and county officials should explore policies that provide economic aid and incentives to local farmers. He said one example of that would involve the Williamson Act, a state law passed in 2010 that provides property tax relief to owners of farmlands who pledge not to use them as development sites.

“With Healdsburg, the issue is how the city interfaces with (the county),” McGuire said. “Whether that involves permitting or developing a local fix that would bridge funding from the Williamson Act.

“The other piece, particularly in the north county, is to use unused county lands to assist families that want to get into farming,” he said. “These are lands with conservation easements – they can't be used for developments like a large hotel or a house – but there's an incentive to use them as farmland.”

The event was put on by the The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, University of California Cooperative Extension, Sonoma County Department of Health Services, and the Sonoma County Food System Alliance.

“The San Francisco Bay area is one of the wealthiest regions in the country, and can be an incredible market for locally produced goods,” McGuire said. “But in these tough times we have to communicate and work together to ensure success in Sonoma … This is a groundbreaking event.”

The event included two keynote speeches, addresses given by several Sonoma County Supervisors, panel discussions featuring local food industry professionals and group activities where attendees had to analyze complicated questions about the county's food system.

Among other things, Thursday's forum underscored the astonishing broadness and complexity of the food system, even on a purely local level. Figuring out ways to promote the local food market, bolster small-scale growers and wrest some control away from agribusinesses and giant food suppliers was more or less the underlying theme of every discussion, but the suggestions those problems gave rise to were manifold.

“It would help to have a definition of what 'local' means,” said panelist Tom Scott, General Manager of Oliver's Market, which has two locations in Santa Rosa and one in Cotati. “When I market local goods, there's a bit of a problem when I define 'local' as Sonoma County and my competition defines it as the western hemisphere.”

One after another, speakers attempted to tackle the enigma of a county that grows some of the best produce in the world and is renown for its food and wine cultures, but is also a place where many farmers, distributors and sellers are struggling to stay in business.

Among the problems cited were a lack of cooperation among both farmers and distributors, the absence of a major local processor for meats and dairy products, insufficient promotion of locally grown food, unused land space and water shortages.

Several speakers cited the need for an intermediary that aggregates the harvests of local farmers, helping to drive down the prices of locally grown food through bulk sales and boosting competitiveness with national distributors. Other types of cooperation were also urged, including the sharing of local distribution facilities to reduce overhead.

Other attendees touched on the need for local government to play a greater role in the food economy. Mary Maddux-Gonzalez, Director of the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, said the government could do more to promote the use of food stamps, which can benefit local grocers and are now accepted at most of the county's farmer's markets. Maddux-Gonzales said that, among Sonoma County residents who are eligible for food stamps, only 29 percent of them actually register.

“This is federal money that is left on the table that could be used to benefit local farmers,” she said.

Perhaps the day's most poignant moment came during a question and answer segment between the audience and the afternoon panelists, when Rohnert Park Vice Mayor Jake Mackenzie directed a question to Tom Scott about the survival of local grocery stores in an age when big box retailers like Wal Mart, Target and Costco are expanding their reach into the food market.

Mackenzie cited the recent closure of Pacific Market in Rohnert Park – one of the area's last remaining local grocery strongholds – which came less than a year after the Rohnert Park Target added a full grocery outlet to its department store. Pointing out that a large group of residents in north Rohnert Park are now well outside of walking distance to any food source, Mackenzie wondered what local markets could do to stay afloat.

“I think all of us are truly sad about (the shuttering of Pacific Market),” Scott said. “I think it's tragic. The Pacifics and the Olivers of the world are reactionary. I think we do what we can to seize on whatever marginal opportunities we get … I don't want to make it sound dire, but this is a very risky business to be in."

“The situation is dire,” responded Mackenzie.